Download - Brief lectures in Media History
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Brief lectures in
Media History
Introduction Media history and
technology
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Topics About history
◦Historians and their motives ◦Social histories and critiques of media
About media technology ◦Four revolutions in mass media ◦Harold Innis – empire and
communication ◦Marshall McLuhan – theories of media
change and influence
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What is history? Collective memory Allows broad questions – when and
who, but also why and how … Not a search for exact answers Not science, not social science Duty to accuracy and truth Same facts / different interpretations Historians often have different
motivations
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Why do historians write history? Herodotus (484–420 BCE)
preserve the memory of great heroes ◦Often in conflict with the next idea:
Thucydides (460–400 BCE) learn the lessons of the past as a guide to the future ◦George Santayana (1863–1952),
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
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Is history objective? Leopold Von Ranke (1795–1886)
said that historians should take a “scientific” approach and report “the way things really were.
Moral and progressive historians – Charles Beard, Lord Acton ◦Acton said – Power corrupts, absolute
power corrupts absolutely. )Is objectivity a “noble dream” as
Peter Novick said?
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Is objectivity the problem? Herbert Butterfield (1900–1979)
objected to “whig” history ◦Whig history honors the heroes,
emphasizes progress, ignores the roads not taken, de-emphasizes minorities, and generally glorifies the inevitable present.
◦Whig history is what happens when the winners get to write history.
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End of historyFrancis Fukuyama (1952–present) and
Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) End of the idea of progress Abandonment of utopian visions
shared by both the right- and left-wing political ideologies
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Social history – Lippmann Walter Lippmann
◦ 1922 book, Public Opinion Press should be part of a system of
checks and balances◦This is “the original dogma of democracy”
Not working – press is too weak Media and historical change
◦Authoritative (censored) ◦Partisan (political parties) ◦Commercial (often sensationalistic) ◦Organized intelligence (future development)
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Other social historians Upton Sinclair -- The Jungle, The
Brass Check, Muckraker, press critic 1900s – 1930s
A. J. Liebling -- New Yorker media critic 1940s
I. F. Stone, also George Seldes ◦ Independent editors and press critics 1950s – 70s
Ben Bagdikian – 1970s – 90s ◦ Media Monopoly, press concentration
Neil Postman -- 1980s - 90s ◦Amusing Ourselves to Death
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Critical media theory Sociologists -- Max Weber and Michael Schudson
◦ Ideational model helps observe the clash of ideas around social reform
Communications theorists -- Michel Foucault ◦ Discourse analysis to understand the information
content and structure of mainstream cultural products and “subjugated knowledges.”
Critical theorists ◦ Frankfurt School -- Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin
and Jurgen Habermas Conflict of classes / Marxist analysis Mass media is structured to subvert identity and assimilate
individuality into the dominant culture◦ Noam Chomsky “libertarian socialist
propaganda model – media supports ruling elites.
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Four media revolutions Printing
◦ Moveable type – 1455 Associated with religious revolution 1500s – 1700s
◦ Industrial scale printing Associated with political revolutions 1700s – now
Imaging ◦ Engraving, photography and cinema ◦ Ads and PR as image making
Both associated with popularization of media Electronic – radio, TV, satellites
Associated with nationalization of media Digital – computers, networks
Associated with emerging global culture
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Media technology & history To what extent is media technology
at the center of human history? Two theorists – Innis & McLuhan
◦Harold Innis (1894 – 1952) Empire and Communications Stressed balance between:
Durable, time – binding media (including oral culture)
Flexible, space – binding media Both needed for “empire building” but lack of
balance led to loss of empires
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Media technology & history
◦Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Technical change in media (the Tetrad)
What does a new media enhance, obsolete, retrieve, and reverse?
Medium is the message Deterministic view of media type as shaping
the content of a message Hot and cool media
“Hot” media immerses audience and allows less participation – cinema
“Cool” media requires involvement and thought -- printed media, possibly radio
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Useful basic concepts Determinism versus social
construction ◦Does the technology advance due to its
own properties or do social, political and economic forces shape the technology?
Utopians versus Luddites ◦Will a new technology improve things or
make them worse? Technological fallacies
◦Predictions about future uses for technology that turn out to be off base
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Next: the printing revolution